Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia

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Oleh Mutiara Andalas, SJ

Peringatan 12 tahun tragedi Mei 1998 ibarat nyala lilin yang menerangi paras kemanusiaan Indonesia. Pelaku menyerang kehidupan korban dan melukai kemanusiaan bersama. Paguyuban korban membela kesucian hidup korban kekerasan dan diskriminasi rasial dari stigma politik. Negara yang membisu, apalagi menghalangi ziarah keadilan bagi korban tragedi, menyembah berhala politik kekerasan dan diskriminasi. Ratapan korban mendorong paguyuban korban melukis ulang paras negara dan anutan politiknya. Negara yang memeluk politik kemanusiaan mendaku kesucian hidup rakyat miskin dan minoritas sosial. Read the rest of this entry »

Undangan terbuka dialog “Dari Keterasingan Menjadi Karib: 12 Tahun Tragedi Mei 1998″ akan diadakan pada:

Hari: Minggu, 16 Mei 2010
Pukul: 5:00pm-8:00pm (didahului oleh jamuan sederhana)
Tempat: Hall Gereja Holy Family, 3880 Smith Street, Union City, CA 94587.

Keterangan lebih lanjut, silakan baca artikel di bawah ini:

Latar Belakang

12 tahun telah berlalu sejak Tragedi Mei 1998 terjadi. Sejak itu telah banyak perubahan dan perkembangan baru yang menjanjikan di antaranya diberlakukannya Undang-Undang Kewarganegaraan yang menyetarakan posisi keturunan Tionghoa dengan suku lain di Indonesia, Tahun Baru Imlek sebagai hari Libur Nasional, diijinkannya karakter, bahasa dan budaya Mandarin/Tionghoa untuk diajarkan di sekolah dan ditampilkan di tempat umum, di antaranya dibangunnya Anjungan Tionghoa di Taman Mini Indonesia, dan berhentinya kediktatoran dan penguasa tangan besi Orde Lama. Read the rest of this entry »

(Below is a letter from The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) that warned President Barack Obama against renewing any U.S. training for Indonesia’s notorious special forces and urged to sign a petition)

Contact: John M. Miller, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), +1-718-596-7668; 917-690-4391, etan@etan.org

U.S. Training of Kopassus: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Not Come

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) warned President Barack Obama against renewing any U.S. training for Indonesia’s notorious special forces. Read the rest of this entry »

Diresensi oleh: Abda’iyah Alhadi

Judul : Lahir dari Rahim: Wacana Perempuan Asia tentang Allah di Era Globalisasi
Penulis : P. Mutiara Andalas, SJ
Kata Pengantar: Jennie S. Bevly dan Ulil Abshar Abdalla
Penerbit : Kanisius, Yogyakarta
Edisi : I, Juni 2009
Harga : Rp 55.000,00

Membahas permasalahan gender adalah menganalisis hubungan peran laki-laki dan perempuan dalam kehidupan sosialnya. Bukan permasalahan kodrat laki-laki yang memproduksi sperma dan perempuan melahirkan. Sebagai manusia keduanya memiliki hak dan kewajiban yang sama dalam menjalankan perannya sebagai makhluk sosial. Akan tetapi yang menjadi permasalahan adalah struktur soaial yang timpang, bias gender yang menyebar luas dan mempengaruhi pola pikir, tindakan dan bentuk kehidupan sosial di negeri ini. Read the rest of this entry »

Image source: tikkun.org

by Muhamad Ali

A basic understanding of humanness and human kindness (that everyone has equal dignity as human before being Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, straight, gay, and so forth). If people believe in God, but they use different terms for God, then they share that humility before God. If some believe and others do not believe in God, they still share that human kindness. The Koran uses the term “children of Adam”.

Peace can only last when there is such basic understanding of equality of every single being. German religion scholar Hans Kung, for instance, says, “no peace among the nations without peace among the religions, no peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions, and no dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundation of the religions.” I would add that there is no sound investigation of the religions without the understanding that every human being has inherent dignity. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jennie S. Bev

Love and lust are addicting and intoxicating. Friendship keeps things grounded. In a good marriage, all these elements are present with friendship as the underlying principle, a lot of love as the building bricks, and a few dashes of lust to spice things up.

Things can become a bit too lethal when lust dominates a friendship or even in a lovingly romantic relationship.

Infatuation is probably best described as a low-grade, momentary, unfulfilled, lusty obsession between people of opposite sexes — straight — or of the same sex — gay.

At one point, I asked a friend who seemed to be showing such an indication and he said, “What we’re having is a temporary infatuation with things we both know we can’t have.” Read the rest of this entry »

Judul: Aku Orang China? Narasi Pemikiran Politik Plus dari Seorang Tionghoa Muda
Penulis: Dr. Beni Bevly
Penerbit: Yayasan Nation Building/NABIL
Editor Edisi Indonesia: Dr. Didi Kwartanada
Genre: Politik
Spesiifikasi: xii+214 hlm; 15.5×22 cm; soft cover
Harga: Rp. 45.000

Sumber: BUKU BARU Aku Orang China (Kolom Tropong Pustakaloka, Kompas)

Jumat, 5 Maret 2010 | 05:31 WIB

Buku Aku Orang China? Narasi Pemikiran Politik Plus dari Seorang Tionghoa Muda memperkenalkan pandangan dan persepsi pemikiran politik dari salah satu di antara sekian juta etnik Tionghoa yang beragam di Indonesia.

Sesuai dengan kata plus di judul buku ini, penulis tidak hanya menarasikan pemikiran politik, tetapi juga menuturkan pemikiran ekonomi, manajemen, dan kepemimpinan organisasi dan aplikasinya di Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jennie S. Bev

The world of politics is based on violence, within which killing — as a form of violence — is a major component in gaining and maintaining power.

Throughout the history of political philosophy, from Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Hobbes’s Leviathan, Locke’s Two Treaties of Government, Rousseau’s The Social Contract, Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto, to Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation,” all agreed that killing is a necessary form of force used in a power struggle, if not as a last resort.

Weber even defined “a modern state” as a “human community that claims the monopoly use of physical force within a given territory.” He also added: “He who seeks the salvation of the soul, of his own and that of others, should not seek it along the avenue of politics, for the quite different tasks of politics can only be solved by violence.” Read the rest of this entry »

Oleh Dr. Beni Bevly

Amukan teroris dan tumbuhnya radikalisme Islam secara pesat setelah runtuhnya Orde Baru pada tahun 1998 di Indonesia telah banyak menimbulkan rasa was-was di kalangan non-Islam radikal, termasuk penghuni bumi di belahan lain di dunia ini. Rasa was-was ini timbul karena persepsi yang tercipta dari tindakan kelompok teroris dan Islam radikal tersebut.

Ternyata ada satu tokoh yang secara berani, kontroversial dan lucu menampilkan sisi lain dari persepsi radikalisme Islam. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Muhammad Ali

Pluralism has always been a contentious issue, but Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid worked beyond passive tolerance. He advocated the creation of a public space for communication, dialogue and cooperation between the mainstream and the marginalized.

Raised in a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) tradition, but also in Western and Eastern traditions, Gus Dur became the advocate of a reform rooted in the traditions. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jennie S. Bev

2009 was filled with drama. A high wall between the Indonesian people and their government continued to exist. Great divides were present between hope and reality, between policy and implementation, and between the powerful and the powerless.

We all have been puzzled on the fact that Indonesian political landscape is either getting more complex or simply getting worse, and the rule of law has not improved either.

In short, is Indonesia progressing? Indonesia has been enjoying the accolades of becoming more democratic. But are we progressing at all? At least within the realm of political playground what can be done and by whom? Read the rest of this entry »

Sumber Gambar: 3.bp.blogspot.com

Oleh Dr. Beni Bevly

Sangatlah miris menyaksikan kasus-kasus penyelesaian korupsi di Indonesia yang berkembang ke arah yang tidak menentu dan dinilai tidak adil oleh banyak kalangan masyarakat. Perkembangan kasus korupsi seperti ini muncul kepermukaan melalui penahanan pemimpin Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) Bibit Samad Rianto dan Chandra Hamzah, kemudian menjalar ke kasus Bank Century. Pekembangan yang lain adalah penyelesaian kasus Prita Mulyasari.

Hal istimewa apakah yang membuat kasus-kasus ini begitu banyak mendapat perhatian dan keterlibatan dari berbagai pihak, baik dalam dan luar negeri? Mengapa kasus seperti ini terus berkelanjutan walaupun sudah lebih dari 10 tahun reformasi digulirkan? Sebagai manusia yang anti korupsi, bagaimana kita bisa mengambil bagian dalam pemberantasannya? Read the rest of this entry »

Title: BRIDGING ISLAM AND THE WEST: An Indonesian View
Author: Dr. Muhamad Ali
Language: English
Publisher: Penerbit Ushul Press, Fakultas Ushuluddin, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
Genre: Anthology
Specification: xiv, 192 hlm: 14×21 cm; soft cover

INTRODUCTION

This book, which is a collection of articles and essays written and published in the Jakarta Post daily and other newspapers and journals over the last six years from 2002, is a product of a continued interest in the relationship between Muslims and the West. The 9/11/2001 terrorist attack in New York has marked a new phase of global history particularly as regards to the West and Muslim societies not only in the center of Islam, the Middle East, but also in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the United States. The relationship between East and West which since the World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) was especially dominated by the Cold War between the two world powers – the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union (USSR) – has now shifted into new and different players, involving the state, international organizations, and civil associations as well as individuals. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jennie S. Bev

On Nov. 12, the Charter for Compassion, a document promoting peace and tolerance, will be officiated and hopefully it will serve as an antidote to religious fundamentalism.

It is the brainchild of religious scholar Karen Armstrong whose breakthrough book A History of God shook the world in 1993 with the assistance of the 2008 TED Prize of US$100,000.

The charter includes ideas and writings from people of all nations, all faiths and all religions, including Abrahamic faiths, and secular-agnostic-atheist non-faiths. Read the rest of this entry »

Judul: Just for You: Mutiara-Mutiara Kehidupan
Penulis: P. Mutiara Andalas, SJ
Penerbit: Kanisius, Yogyakarta, 2009
Ukuran: 150×150
Beli: Klik di sini

Kata Pengantar

Buku di tangan pembaca sejatinya sebuah kado ulang tahun. Saya mempersembahkannya untuk seorang remaja yang baru saja menginjak usia 17 tahun. Kisah hidupnya seringkali membawa ingatan saya kembali pada Aya dalam drama serial Ichi Ritoru no Namida. Di balik drama 1 Liter Air Mata, saya menemukan harapan akan kehidupan yang senantiasa bernyala. Harapan hidup ditemukan saat keduanya bergumul dengan sakit. Nafas tulisan berasal dari perjumpaan dengan pribadi-pribadi istimewa seperti penerima persembahan buku. Saya terngiang penuturan A. Alvarez yang mengaku jatuh cinta pada bahasa lebih dari setengah abad. Read the rest of this entry »